The present invention pertains generally to the use of computer networks, and pertains more particularly to improved ways to access and distribute information to specific recipients through computer networks.
Prior to the wide spread use of global computer networks, many individuals relied on media like newspapers and radio and television broadcasts to obtain xe2x80x9cnewsxe2x80x9d or information about rapidly changing situations and current events. Today, global computer networks such as the Internet provide an additional source of information. For some individuals, computer network sources have eclipsed the importance of the older, more traditional media because these networks are capable of supporting extremely rapid publication of large amounts of information. As a result, individuals may be given ready access to information from essentially any source throughout the world.
This has proven to be a mixed blessing. On one hand, having access to large amounts of information is better than having access to only a restricted subset of this information; more is better. On the other hand, the volume of available information has grown to such an extent that most individuals are overwhelmed by the amount of work required to find or identify information of particular interest. It is no longer feasible for individuals to find information by merely perusing global computer networks to discover what exists.
A number of techniques have been developed in an attempt to solve this problem. One class of techniques xe2x80x9cpullsxe2x80x9d information to an individual in response to a request. Network facilities called xe2x80x9csearch enginesxe2x80x9d assist in the task of finding information by searching for documents and other elements of information that are deemed to satisfy one or more search criteria provided by an individual, and then allowing the individual to request or xe2x80x9cpullxe2x80x9d selected information from its source. Facilities called xe2x80x9cmeta search enginesxe2x80x9d provide an additional level of support by invoking multiple search engines in search of requested information.
Another class of techniques xe2x80x9cpushesxe2x80x9d information to an individual in response to a request. Facilities known as xe2x80x9crobotsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cagentsxe2x80x9d assist in the search for information by first identifying information that is pertinent to one or more criteria specified by an individual, and then causing that information to be sent or xe2x80x9cpushedxe2x80x9d to the individual.
Although these techniques have achieved some degree of success in finding information, they have not provided facilities for presenting this information in a form that has desirable features like the easily readable layout of a traditional newspaper.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a computer-network based newspaper having content that can be selected and presented in a form according to personal preferences of an individual recipient.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a personalized presentation of news and information is provided to a recipient by: obtaining from the recipient an indication of one or more preferred categories and a preferred presentation layout; identifying a plurality of documents having content deemed to be relevant to the one or more preferred categories; obtaining content information representing at least part of the content of the identified documents; and generating a representation of articles including the content information such that a presentation of the representation conforms to the preferred presentation layout. Other aspects of the present invention and objects achieved thereby are set forth throughout this disclosure.
The various features of the present invention and its preferred implementations may be better understood by referring to the following discussion and the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like elements in the several figures. The contents of the following discussion and the drawings are set forth as examples only and should not be understood to represent limitations upon the scope of the present invention.